Points for Stating the Obvious: Mitt Romney on Health Care

Mitt and I have a love/hate relationship (it's one-sided, of course, since he doesn't know me from the other 700 pairs of shoes in his closet). I don't agree with him all the time on all subjects--but I'm at a loss on this latest misrepresentation of his words. In this Wall Street Journal article, Mitt says:

"... we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance… If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care." 

This video from the clever little Obama spin doctors paints Romney as a lying flip-flopper: 

I just love the way words are twisted and presented in a way to fool the American people (most of whom believe it because they "saw it on the by-GOD telly, Harry! Of course, it's the damn truth!"). Half truths, slanted accusations designed to pull the wool over America's eyes and distract them from REAL issues they SHOULD be paying attention to. 

I'm not surprised though. It's happened every day during this election year--and all political sides are guilty. But let's take a closer look at what Romney is REALLY saying here:

Using the emergency room as a primary care physician, especially when you don't have health insurance, is a contributing factor--and quite a large one--to the skyrocketing cost of health care.

Folks, it's not the heart attacks in the ER that got us into the health care mess. Those cases will end up in hospitals anyway (as they should). It's the people who go to the ER for things like aspirin and antacid--because they can get those things FREE in the ER, rather than pay a couple of their own bucks for them at the corner drugstore. 

And it's not really the aspirin or antacid or tylenol that's jacked up the cost of health care; it's the actual ER visit (administration, paperwork, doctor and staff salaries, supplies, room charge) that DOES NOT get paid by the patient.

So, who pays for it? 

The rest of us who DO pay. The burden is shifted from those who DON'T pay to those who DO pay. Health care costs at the hospitals go up, our insurance premiums go up, up, up. It's just simple math--balance sheets and P&L. Healthcare, after all, IS a business.

A doc friend of mine told me about a woman that visits the ER every month with mild cramps--to get Motrin. She's not the brightest bulb among many dim bulbs to be sure; but who is really at fault? Someone rewarded for putting her hand out? Or a system that not only gives people permission to act irresponsibly in the first place but also rewards them for being irresponsible?

Does this sound at all familiar? Of course it does! It's what this whole election year is about for Obama--taking away from people who HAVE to give to people who DON'T HAVE. And then rewarding the people who don't have for not trying to do or be anything more. His entire presidential (no--entire POLITICAL CAREER) agenda has been to enslave our nation to government. If you think you know Obama, read this article in The Washington Examiner.

The bottom line of what Mitt said is that as long as we give away non-emergency services and over-the-counter meds in the ER to people who don't pay for them, then we can't expect anything but rising costs and more people taking advantage of a broken system. 

Why wouldn't Medicaid do a better job at EDUCATING Medicaid recipients on this subject? Because that would not be in the best interest of Medicaid: a government-run program largely invested in growing its ranks to justify and prolong its bloated existence. 

As unemployment grows; as food and gas prices go up; as real estate values drop; the more people will end up on welfare--and the more they will turn to the ER for primary, non-emergency care. And these very people will vote for a president who will ENSURE their continued benefits of dependency. 

I think too many Americans know Mitt Romney does not agree with their dependency and that he will take steps to eliminate it--and that's why his words about emergency room care have been twisted. 

Unfortunately, it's just one more nail in his political coffin. It's just one more reason why people who either can't or won't pay their own way will jump on the burning Obamawagon--on its way straight off a cliff. 

So It Begins: Rationing and Global Budgets in the U.S.

And so it begins.

Presently, kidney transplants are on a more-or-less first-come-first-serve basis. Those waiting the longest receive kidneys the quickest, as they come available.

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a nonprofit organization that distributes organs, is now suggesting that a kidney with a potential life expectancy of 40 years shouldn't be given to someone with 5 years left to live (actuarially speaking—or, more accurately, guessing). In other words, young healthy kidneys should go to younger, otherwise healthy recipients--no matter how long they've been waiting.

UNOS is proposing that "20% of kidneys expected to last the longest would go to the 20% of recipients expected to get the most years out of each organ."

Bioethicists and others are justifiably concerned about this because, first and foremost, WHO decides WHO the lucky recipients will be?--not to mention, there are basic concerns about fairness and equitability.

In recent Facebook posts, I examined fallacies of Obamacare that have circulated the Internet—fallacies designed to do nothing but frighten people. I found many things about the Affordable Health Care Act that are good and necessary, and I admit I enjoyed digging into the legislation to find the facts that would put an end to fear-mongering lies. However, I also found many areas of concern in the legislation, and I also pointed out those.

One of the issues I discussed was rationing. What UNOS is proposing is the beginning of global-budget-centered rationing that will affect ALL Americans.

According to the UNOS website, more than 28,000 people receive organ transplants each year. Also according to their website, they receive most of their funding through “computer registration fees paid by members, charitable contributions, and project grants from foundations and corporations.” Only 7% of their funding comes from federal contracts, according to their site.

However, UNOS was awarded the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) contract in 1986 by the US Department of Health and Human Services. UNOS is still the only organization to operate under the OPTN.

Together, OPTN and UNOS have almost a dozen JOINT committees and have already established 11 “geographical regions” for “administrative purposes.” This is ripe territory for establishing global budgets, which is the cornerstone to rationing healthcare.

In case you didn’t read my posts about global budgets, they are regionally established budgets that assign a specific dollar amount to regions for the purpose of healthcare services/expense distribution. In other words, Region 1 will have X number of dollars to spend on healthcare and all of the people in Region 1 have to stay within that budget. This means that certain decisions will have to be made about who receives care—and how much—in order to stay within budget. A lot of people with high-cost medical expenses will inevitably be denied care. Quality will have to be sacrificed in order to serve the entire population of that region. That’s how global budgets work. That’s how socialized medicine works in other countries. That's how socialized medicine will work here in the United States. Denying care is the ONLY way budgets are achieved. It's simple math to bureaucrats.

There are many, many factors that go into the current system of deciding who receives transplants. But giving transplants to those in need on a first-come-first-serve basis is currently the fairest, most ethical means of distribution.

This subject hits close to home for me. My husband’s cousin, Philip, is facing this terrible situation right now. His wife, Brittney, is a beautiful, young mother of two small children. Her kidneys have been failing for quite some time. No suitable match was available for years, and her health deteriorated to the point of desperation. Finally, a decision was made for Phillip to donate one of his kidneys. It wasn’t a perfect match, but it was worth the risk to try. They both underwent the difficult and painful procedure a couple of weeks ago, and so far they are both doing well. We continue to pray for miraculous recoveries.

Under UNOS’s proposed system, however, even though Brittney has been waiting for several years, her health deteriorated to the point that her life expectancy wasn’t pleasant to consider and she wouldn't be a frontrunner candidate for a kidney transplant. Under UNOS’s proposed system, Brittney would be denied a kidney when it becomes available because a young healthy kidney might be wasted on her. Under UNOS’s system, her own husband may not be able to donate his kidney to her. Instead, his kidney could go to someone younger, healthier, who hasn’t been waiting as long. Would Phillip still want to donate an organ if he knows it wouldn't go to his wife? How many other potential donors will not give if they think their organs will be part of the cherry-picking process?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that UNOS has made this call right now—this close to an election, and this soon after the Affordable Care Act was passed and found constitutionally viable. What kind of pressure is UNOS receiving from OPTN to make this change? Will they lose funding and their OPTN award if they do not comply? Are they offering this olive branch in return for their continued control over their own organization?

These are questions we need to ask NOW. We can sit in our easy chairs and watch the evening news and feel confident that the people we put in office are keeping an eye on this situation, BUT THE PEOPLE WHO SIGNED OBAMACARE INTO LAW STILL DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS IN IT—BY THEIR OWN ADMISSION.

We can’t wait for “someone else” to protect us. It’s a grave mistake to assume anyone in Washington is looking out for our best interests. And it doesn’t matter who our next president will be—the results will be the same if we do not demand answers and hold policymakers accountable.

If this is a subject near and dear to you, go to this site: http://www.organdonor.gov/legislation_micro/ and review federal and state legislation regarding organ and tissue donation. Write to your representatives and demand answers about how they plan to protect you and your community from healthcare rationing and global budgets.

It is clear that our Washington representatives have no interest in policing themselves on issues that don’t directly affect them. They don’t receive the same healthcare packages we do, and they never will under their current entitlements. Unless we FORCE change to take place, it will not happen.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/09/20/161475405/whos-next-in-line-for-a-transplant-the-answer-is-changing

Dear Homeland

Hi Again! AJ Here!

We shopped at the wonderful Sunflower Farmer's Market yesterday. As usual, it was like dying and going to veggie heaven.

You had a couple more protestors out in force, I see. Their signs were much improved. No typos this time! Congratulations!

And thanks for the chuckle. The sign proclaiming, "STOP THE ATTACK ON OKLAHOMA!" was particularly amusing. I had visions of little terrorist broccoli and suicide bomber tomatoes. I half expected to walk into Sunflower and join a giant food fight.

I'll be back at the OKC Sunflower next week. I hope to see more of your people out there providing free entertainment.

To your health,

AJ

An Open Letter to Homeland Stores

Dear Homeland,

My husband and I drove 88 miles from Lawton to Oklahoma City yesterday. We make that drive at least once a week. That’s 176 miles round trip every week--let’s see, that will be around 700 miles a month--close to 8,500 miles a year. That’s a whole lotta driving for fruits and vegetables!

6410 North May Avenue, Oklahoma City, OK

We don’t mind the drive though because we get the best organic produce (and a few other lovely things) at Sunflower Farmers Market, which just opened in OKC last month.

It seems the fellow who started Wild Oats sold his stores to Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck Foods) a while back. Then, I guess he was bored with his millions so he started Sunflower. I’m so glad he did; if it wasn’t for him we’d still be limping along at the only grocery store choices we have in Lawton, Oklahoma: Country Mart and the dreaded Walmart.

As we popped in to Sunflower OKC yesterday we saw two Homeland protesters in front of our favorite grocery store. And not just two ordinary protesters, mind you, but two grungy, sloppy, overweight protesters with homemade signs. And not just any homemade signs, mind you, but homemade signs with false information and misspelled words on them.

I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture. We were driving the Miata and by the time I saw the signs we were about to be pulverized by a couple of pickup trucks, so we had to skedaddle.

It turns out the unkempt Homeland protesters were sort of rallying over the fact that:

1. Sunflower is not an Oklahoma-based company, and
2. Sunflower does not sell Oklahoma-made products.

(I say your protesters were sort of rallying because they weren’t very enthusiastic protesters. They looked more like they were waiting for a ride.)

#1 Sunflower Is Not an Oklahoma-based Company
First of all, SO WHAT?! Sunflower is a big store that created a lot of jobs ... IN OKLAHOMA. Here is what I found on the Country Mart and Homeland sites:

No positions available? What are people supposed to do? Wait for Country Mart and Homeland to hire? Not take a job with a reputable company with good-paying jobs just because it’s not an Oklahoma-based company? Absurd.

But here is what is more absurd: Country Mart is part of Homeland Stores, and HOMELAND STORES is a subsidiary of Associated Wholesale Growers (AWG), which is a Kansas City company. Here is the Wikipedia link to AWG here.  Homeland is headquartered in Edmond, Oklahoma; but filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002 and was bought by AWG. Read about it here.

Sunflower REALLY looks like this!

Homeland, if you're going to send henchmen to picket a non-Oklahoma-owned company, you should make sure no one finds out YOU are not an Oklahoma-owned company (God, I love the internet!).

Aside from your conflicting standards, you should be more concerned that Sunflower has incredible-quality products at crazy-low prices. The employees are friendly, cheerful, and helpful. The store is clean and organized. It's dazzling!

So I’m wondering, Is someone just afraid of a little competition? Well, suck it up, Homeland! If you did a better job running your grocery stores, Sunflower wouldn’t look like an overpacked sardine can every hour they’re open. They wouldn’t have so many happy, smiley shoppers. (Honestly, you should see these shoppers. They are like peppy veggie zombies slamming through the place like there’s no tomorrow ... and I’m one of them!)

#2 Sunflower Does Not Sell Oklahoma-made Products
Your sluggish protesters couldn’t have actually gone into Sunflower because if they had before hefting their faulty placards, they would have seen Oklahoma-made products all over the place. The shelf signs clearly indicate the many Oklahoma-made products, and we buy a number of them.

Our Bottom Line
I thought you should know why we drive almost 180 miles a week for groceries instead of shopping at the Country Mart in Lawton:

1. Poor quality products--your vegetables don’t last two days in my refrigerator.
2. Higher prices for lower quality--I pay less at Sunflower for good quality products.
3. Poor facilities--very unsanitary conditions with run-down environment.
4. Lack of organic selections--very few selections, and those are overpriced.
5. Terrible customer service--unhappy employees with no customer service skills.

And now you can add:

     6. Your corporate double standards and unethical, baseless attack on your competition.

We HAVE TO drive 180 miles a week to shop for groceries because there isn’t a decent grocery store where we live. I’m a vegetarian and my husband is about halfway there; we buy organic as often as it’s available; and we don’t want to buy old, dead, dirty food that’s been sitting in trucks for weeks and then over-priced before it's thrown onto shelves. We want to see knowledgeable, cheerful employees constantly stocking new product. We want to shop in a clean store. We want prices that match the quality of what we buy. We want to give our hard-earned money to fiscally responsible, ethical companies.

Given your poor report card, I have to wonder how you can be so careless by sending your picketers to attack a great company that is employing Oklahomans, and then loading up your picketers with erroneous data.

If you must persist, though, you should rethink your public image strategy regarding protests. If you’re going to send people to picket for you, make sure they are presentable. (I will say, though, that yesterday’s protesters were a very good representation of Lawton’s Country Mart stores: rundown and untidy.)

Make sure no one can find out that YOU are not an Oklahoma-owned company.

And at least have some professional picket signs made. For crying in a bucket, handmade with a marker, sloppy handwriting, misspelled words! You were represented by a couple of illiterate hillbillies. I doubt anyone took them seriously.

I’ll be back at Sunflower Farmers Market next week, and I imagine I’ll see Homeland protesters sort of protesting about imaginary things again. But what I wish, instead, is that Homeland will take a clue from your competition and do something positive and proactive about your image and your products. If you cleaned up your act, we might be your faithful customers.

To your health,

AJ DePriest


P.S. I wrote to you through your website, also, but I have serious doubts about receiving a response from you.

Wouldn't That Be Somethin'?

Where is that little button you click and your blog writes itself?

Oh, there isn't one! Hm. I guess I'll have to be more diligent about this, at least until someone gives me access to the write-yourself-blog button. Wouldn't that be somethin'?

It is now mid-September, and we've broken the record heatwave that brought triple-digit temperatures to the Midwest for almost four months. Read about it here. There has been scant rain during that time, and everything that would normally be green this time of year is brown and dead. Good thing I didn't plant a garden in the spring--it would have been toast by June.

Let's see if I can think of something more horrible than Oklahoma in 115 degree temperatures   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   nope. Nothing comes to mind. It's like living on Jupiter, with tarantulas and scorpions.

Dan says it's not that bad. With the heavy winds and heat, it's like a convection oven; at least we're baking evenly.

At last post, I was nearly finished with Dr. Junger's Clean Program. It was a splendid experience! I can see the benefit of doing the Clean Program once a year. I don't need it more than that, since I eat well and exercise often. But doing a regular full-body cleanse has too many benefits to ignore.

In a future post, I'm going to discuss the importance of cleanses and talk about my own experience with them (you may want to read it on an empty stomach). And since I now realize that this blog won't write itself, I promise it won't be seven months before the next post.

Cheers to good health!

Day 21 on the Clean Program - I Did It!

Wow, I'm on my last day of Dr. Alejandro Junger's Clean Program, and I feel fantastic! I am stronger in body, mind, and spirit than I was three weeks ago. My hysterectomy last November flattened my immune system, and I felt like I was 80 years old. But now I feel 20 years younger than my 47.

If I told you that you could spend three weeks on this program and feel this good, you probably wouldn't believe me--or you'd think I was exaggerating. But it's the kickstart I needed to compare my health before and after The Clean Program. It's shocking how bad you can feel and not realize it, simply because you have nothing to which you can compare it.

I found a couple of sources for vitamins and other nutritional supplements so I can keep up with my Clean regimen. Swanson's Vitamins has great prices on products. We've used them for years, and they are very reliable.

The results of The Clean Program were fairly typical for me, compared with reports from other Clean graduates. I lost about 10 lbs.—very good! But all the other great results reported here and here mean more to me than the 10 lb. loss. I feel SO wonderful.

So, thank you to Dr. Junger for being such a great physician of the people and helping me (and thousands of others) find True North.

Did you know Oklahoma has more manmade lakes than any other state? 

My biggest problem right now is finding a decent grocery store that sells FRESH and ORGANIC produce. I've dabbled in a vegetarian lifestyle, picked at the idea of a raw food diet, and I'd like to do both. But FINDING FOOD is the biggest problem where I live (a certain, deprived location in Oklahoma).

To paraphrase Trevanian's beloved and bawdy Basque, Benat Le Cagot: By the sweating and shriveled balls of St. Thomas, who in hell would live in Oklahoma?!

My sentiments exactly.

Seen in an Oklahoma Walmart

My grocery choices here are … wait, I have to sit just right to type this because it's so pathetic it gives me a stomach ache … Walmart (think People of Walmart) and CountryMart (which is sort of like what you'd find in a third-world country, except less fresh and more flies). The general population here is  generally unhealthy and growing more so by the generation. Obesity is a problem. Every stop light is like the smoking zone at a NASCAR race. Fast food joints on every corner, sandwiched between the decrepit porn barns disguised as pawn shops and the hellish bastions of pay-day loanery.

The Mullet ... alive and living in OK

The only way I'll set foot in the Walmart is if I have my camera ready and I am allowed to take pictures of the wackdoodlery I see there. It's too hilarious not to capture in pictures.

So, I am now on a quest to find a place to buy healthier foods. I'm about 80 miles from Oklahoma City and about an hour from Wichita Falls, Texas. Surely I'll have some luck in those locations.

If you get anything at all from this blog posting, I hope you are either thankful that you live in a place where you have good grocery choices or that you'll at least write and tell me how much worse it could be if I lived where you live.

Seriously, I am thankful for everything in my life (even Oklahoma). I'm thankful for good health, which eludes so many. I'm thankful for resources like the internet so that I can connect with others for support and find tools to help in the quest for better health. I'm thankful for my family, my darling Dan, my healthy kids and grandkids. I'm thankful to love what I do and do what I love.

To your health,

AJ

Day 11 on the Clean Program - The Power Behind the Throne: Your Support Network

Talking to GB over breakfast today (GB is Googly Bear: Dan. He calls me Hun, which is short for Atilla) about how much better we both feel.

Dan has been following along with me on the Clean program, but he's been doing his own home version of the Clean program. He has a healthy protein-type shake for breakfast and dinner, just like me, and eats something super healthy for lunch, just like me. And he's been feeling better and better every day! Just like me! We already take a lot of supplements so trying to choke down a handful of pills several times a day isn't a big deal. We both do it, and we agree that the benefits outweigh the annoyance of swallowing horse pills. 

He put on a pair of pants today and they HUNG on him. He's dropped a few pounds obviously. He's 6' tall and straight as an arrow with long monkey arms so he carries weight very well. 

All that to say, he didn't fork over $425 but he's following along with me and being extremely supportive. It's so important to have a support system while you're doing this, especially if you experience any kind of "healing crisis." A healing crisis occurs when your body tries to dump toxins faster than it's able to get rid of them. And the more toxic you are, the worse your healing crisis can be. Picture mean, evil toxins barreling like freight trains to every possible elimination site in your body in order to evade the healthy little cheerleaders you're putting into it. It's a train wreck. 

This is why you may start a detox program or a super healthy diet and then feel awful (sometimes immediately, sometimes several days into it). And you're left to think, What is THIS? I'm trying to be healthy and I feel this bad? And then you may give up on the detox or diet because you think it's hurting you.  If you hang in there, that healing crisis will pass in about 2-3 days and you'll start feeling the benefits of what you're doing. Eventually, the freight trains carrying the toxins find escape routes and all your little cheerleaders start throwing parties. (There's a bad Joe Francis joke in there somewhere.)

Several years ago, I decided I wanted to change to a strict raw diet. I knew nothing about raw diets or even why I should eat a raw diet. It sounded like a good idea at the time! Two words: STOO-PID! Dan held my hand and took me to the emergency room five days into my Brilliant Idea because I could not POOP! I had a brick in my gut and it wasn't moving! I didn't know that going raw cold turkey and not drinking enough water and not taking a fiber supplement was a bad and dangerous combination. I was pretty mad that I tried to do something healthy for myself and it ended soooooo badly. 

About five years ago, I wanted to try it again, but I did it the SMART way this time. I actually researched raw diets quite a bit, and even edited a book about raw food living by George Malkmus (author of The Hallelujah Diet). Dan supported me 100%, and I eased into it. I didn't eliminate all cooked foods and meat immediately, I drank tons of water, and took supplements, including fiber. The best thing that came of that experience was that I was able to get off blood pressure medication (the only medication I've had to take on a regular basis). I lost a lot of weight, slowly, and I felt pretty good until … you know, you read the first post … we slid fell crashed off the health wagon. 

Dan was right beside me when we crashed off the wagon too! Wow, now there's a life partner for you! :) Beside me through thick and thin (mostly thick), for richer or poorer (mostly poorer), and in butter-and-heavy-cream-and-andouille-sausage sickness and in health. 

If you live with another human being, you absolutely MUST have their full, undivided support if you're going to endeavor toward a healthier life. I mean, your cat doesn't care how fat you are! And your dog actually LOVES it when you sit and eat a whole pizza because he'll probably get some of it when you fall asleep on the couch with the pizza box open on the coffee table. 

Your spouse, your friends, your other family members MUST be 100% IN with you. They don't necessarily have to do exactly what you're doing or eat what you're eating, but they must love you enough to know that you're not doing this because you're experiencing temporary insanity. This is important to you, so it needs to be important to them. Don't let your mother tempt you with her lemon cake by saying, "Oh come on! You'll hurt my feelings if you don't eat a big piece!" You just have to say, "No, you'll live if I don't have any." And if she persists, just get up and go for a brisk walk. It's really okay to tell family and friends, "Stop trying to make me fail at this! It's important to me to succeed!" 

And if push comes to shove, just stop putting yourself in social settings with people who don't care about what's important to you. Especially avoid settings where there will be food you shouldn't eat and people who will try and shove it down your throat. 

I've experienced this, and from my perspective: the people who do this to you usually have a lot of health issues and they feel bad that they don't have your will power or desire to live a healthier life. Misery loves company. But nothing tastes better than good health feels. A very wise lady told me that once. 

But what if the uncooperative person in your health quest is your spouse? You can't very well desert him (or her) just because he won't jump on your broccoli bandwagon. (Well, I think you can, but I'm weird that way.) This isn't about that naysaying spouse whining, "If you love me, you won't change the way you eat! I need to share meals with you the way we always have! Because … um … we … uh … BOND when we eat together!" (Or some such silly nonsense.) What a load of CRAP! This is an insecurity issue that can only be dealt with head on with love and trust on the line. 

YOU have to be strong and say, "I love you, but this is changing for me." Period. And make it happen. And let your spouse deal with it. He will either come along or pout while you get healthier and feel better. 

Don't let anyone pull you down. You can love these people, but you don't have to give up your health goals. 

So What's New?

Dan tried to help me think of the other great things I've noticed over the last few days that have occurred since I started the Clean program. Here are a couple of new ones:

• My sleep is incredible. I've been sleeping through the night consistently since about Day 6 of the Rebuild program. I used to wake up several times a night and had trouble getting back to sleep. Now, I sleep eight hours a night, ALL night, and I wake up completely rested. I don't know why I had trouble sleeping prior to the program. Maybe it was joint pain, maybe my circadian rhythms were haywire. 

• My eyes are very clear. I've never had a problem with bloodshot eyes, but they have appeared dull for quite some time. Now, the whites of my eyes are very white, and my eyes look brighter. I wish my vision would improve, but maybe that's something I can look forward to on this program. 

• I've also always had great ability to concentrate and multitask, but it seems like I definitely upped my game this week. I've been getting more work done in a day than I normally do (and I already get about a week of work done in three days, so that's saying a lot). 

• Dan, who isn't doing the Clean program, but is echoing what I'm doing with his own home program, is lighter on his feet and feels better than he has in a long time. He feels healthier and stronger, less stiffness, and more energy. 

I'm thankful for Dan. He's my best friend. And the fact that he's giving up meals and our old way of life and following me in this program says a lot about his personal definition of partnership. 

His birthday is coming up … what can I do for him?